US Air Force Funds Digital Engineering Initiative

The initiative tackles a critical bottleneck in defense programs: a sprawling network of thousands of suppliers who use incompatible digital tools and operate behind separate, secure firewalls. This fragmentation forces engineers to manually copy and share data, a slow and risky process that surrenders control of sensitive information and hinders rapid innovation. Industry Øne aims to create an "Internet of Models" that allows different digital engineering tools to communicate and collaborate securely. The core principle is to separate the connection of data from its control; information can be accessed and worked on through policy-enforced interfaces without being centralized, copied, or stored outside the owner's secure environment. At the helm of Istari Digital is CEO Will Roper, who previously served as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. During his tenure, he championed digital engineering and innovation, famously authoring a guide on the topic titled, “There is No Spoon,” inspired by The Matrix. This new contract builds on the foundations of previous, smaller-scale initiatives. One such project, Flyer Øne, partnered with Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works to pioneer the digital certification of an X-plane, aiming to approve an aircraft's airworthiness based on digital models and simulations before it is physically built. Another precursor, Model Øne, focused on breaking down barriers to collaboration across different military domains. Industry Øne represents the next logical step: scaling these proven concepts of digital certification and collaboration to an industrial level, involving multiple contractors simultaneously to accelerate the entire defense ecosystem.